


Milkshakes & Chill

by DizzyBunnies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT S6 SPOILERS!, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, death mention, space dad is finally back so ofc space son needs a one on one, this is platonic ya nasties, verbal abuse mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 03:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15064523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyBunnies/pseuds/DizzyBunnies
Summary: **CONTAINS MAJOR SEASON 6 SPOILERS**Lance can't shake the guilt of what had happened with Shiro. He could've done something. He could've saved him. He could've, but didn't. They had nearly lost Shiro, and it was all his fault.Shiro, of course, doesn't agree.**CONTAINS MAJOR SEASON 6 SPOILERS**





	Milkshakes & Chill

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE do not read if u havent seen s6 yet!! or like do if u dont care abt spoilers ig. but this is a p big one so like pls!!!  
> SPOILERRRRRR ALERRRRRRRT YALL

Arus reminded Lance of Earth. Blue skies and green fields; fluffy, white clouds and overbearing amounts of water deposits. Heck, even flying there in their lions had his heart racing from how similar to Earth it looked from space. Had he been a child, he would probably not even be able to tell the difference.

When the five lions landed a few quintaints ago, the Arusians were more than delighted to help team Voltron gather their bearings before making the hefty journey to Earth.

Everyone more or less found stuff to do. Shiro rested plenty. Allura and Coran talked with Romelle (Coran was ecstatic that Allura had someone of her age and species to relate to). Pidge and Hunk began making the necessary preparations for their journey home. Keith was catching up with his mother now that they didn’t necessarily have their fate on the line.

Everyone was with someone. Everyone but Lance.

“ _Moooooo._ ”

Well, he wasn’t _entirely_ alone.

He sighed, pushing a bucket out from under Kaltenecker and brining a new one under her. He knew the Alteans adored his milkshakes, so he had offered some to the Arusians whom had instantly fallen in love.

One of the good things about being out of the castleship was losing the feeling of confinement. Yes, the castleship had become their home, and yes, it stopped them from being bound to one place (but hey, so did their lions, technically), but it was nice to be grounded. It was nice to be on a planet that felt familiar enough that the pangs and heartache of being homesick didn’t plague him five nights out of seven.

“ _Mooooo!_ ”

Lance looked down and realised there wasn’t anything more coming out of his cow.

“Sorry, girl,” he mumbled, standing up. He grabbed the two buckets, one in each hand, and waddled over to his lion—Keith’s? His. He rolled his eyes. He’d probably been in Red longer than Blue at this point, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was imposing. He loved Red, of course, but he felt kind of bad for taking her away from Keith.

Plopping down at his station inside of Red, he got to work. There wasn’t much to it, but it kept his hands busy and his mind occupied.

He began by first boiling the milk to kill any bacteria. He brought up the two buckets and poured them slowly into a pot, watching as the white-as-snow liquid bubbled and swayed.

_White. As. Snow._

He gasped, nearly dropping his bucket, and backed away until his shoulders hit the wall behind him. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the image he had only seen a few quintaints prior.

_Shiro. On the ground. Unmoving._

_Lance, sobbing. Collapsing to his knees. Apologising over and over._

_Allura, saving him, and his hair turning a pristine white._

Perhaps his homesickness had stopped plaguing him (for the time being), but his guilt sure hadn’t. He felt pathetic, nearly going into hysterics over the colour white.

When Shiro was more conscious and aware of what was happening, Lance had apologised yet again. Shiro had a tough time remembering much outside of the astral plane, and Lance had filled him in.

Sort of.

Of course, he had left out the part that had sent him to bed shaking one night.

_Lance, this is not your call._

_I told you to stay out of this!_

Before he could torture himself more, a beep. Recognising it as Red alerting him to someone coming close to her proximity, he stood up and nodded, allowing her to open her mouth and let the person in. He made his way over, wrapping his bathrobe around him a little too tight on the way out, wanting to cover the bit of milk he had spilled on himself.

It was Shiro. Of course.

“Hey, kiddo.” Shiro greeted. Lance merely nodded in response. He glanced up. To his un-surprised disappointment, Shiro’s hair was still white as ever. “I uh, tried to find the others, but it seems like they’re all busy doing their own thing, so I came to see what you were up to.”

Lance shrugged, looking over his shoulder to his makeshift milkshake station.

“Makin’ milkshakes for the Arusians,” he informed. “I mean, you could, uh, help if you want.”

Shiro smiled, absentmindedly grabbing hold of his right shoulder. Lance followed, and nearly said something to perhaps try and comfort Shiro, but decided against it. Maybe he shouldn’t bring it up. Instead, he gestured vaguely behind him, inviting Shiro in.

The elder was still getting used to seeing the Blue—no, the Red paladin in a blue bathrobe, blue lion slippers and pyjamas, but entering the _Red_ lion.

The two silently walked down the corridor of the lion and into the back room of the cockpit, where Lance had set up his little station. He willed the lights on, but upon entering, he noticed that one of the buckets was spilled over on the floor. He must have lost his grip on it and dropped it without realising. He cursed under his breath and bent down, beginning to soak up the milk with a nearby cloth.

Shiro knelt down as well, grunting slightly, and helped him.

“Sorry,” Lance said without thinking.

“For?” Shiro asked, a concerned smile on his features.

“Making you clean this up. Making milkshakes is a lot more fun than this, I promise.” The younger replied, almost as if an attempt at humour. Shiro shrugged.

“I don’t mind. Not exactly like we have much else to do.” He countered. Lance didn’t reply, and when Shiro looked over at him, expecting a response, he got none, and instead watched as Lance focused perhaps a bit _too_ hard on something as simple as cleaning up spilled milk.

They were quiet a moment longer before Shiro decided to break the silence. He knew something was clearly up with the boy, and while he had his hunches (well, it was more than a hunch, he knew _exactly_ what the poor kid was beating himself up over), he wanted to hear it from Lance himself.

“Do you usually just drop buckets of milk?” Shiro asked, smile never leaving his features. He wanted to make sure Lance knew he wasn’t angry or upset. Lance shrugged.

“Can’t say that I do.” He said, standing up and tossing his cloth in a hamper in the corner of the room.

“So, is there a reason you may have dropped this particular bucket?” Shiro asked, throwing his cloth as well and turning to face the boy.

_He…he tried to tell me, but I didn’t realise. I’m so sorry, Shiro… I-I didn’t know… I-I… I could’ve…_

His own words replayed in his head a million times, almost as if he had rehearsed them.

He remembered the concerned look Hunk had given him. The quietness as everyone had let him say what he had needed to say. The soft, reassuring hand Allura had placed on his shoulder.

Lance hadn’t realised how long he was in his own nightmare until Shiro placed a firm hand on his arm.

“Lance? Buddy?” He called, worried. Lance gulped, trying to hold down tears. Shiro was eye-level with him, the taller man leaning down ever so slightly.

“I…” The Red Paladin was at a loss for words. He had already apologised several times, what else was he to do? Nothing could make up for what he did—or rather, didn’t do. He shook his head, as if trying to communicate his disability to speak.

“Listen, Lance, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s totally fine.”

_No! He needed to talk about this. It was driving him crazy. It was keeping him up at night. It was—_

“Lance…”

_I told you to stay out of this!_

He dropped to his knees, hands over his mouth and eyes wide. Tears fell freely now, and immediately, Shiro was at his level yet again. Without even saying anything, Shiro pulled him close into a one-armed hug.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Shiro. I’m so sorry!” He sputtered out.

“Lance, it’s alright. I’m here now. I’m safe. You did nothing wrong.”

Lance gave a small nod but said nothing, and the two stayed like that a moment. Admittedly, Lance had needed a good cry. A good hug. He just hadn’t wanted it to be with the person he was feeling sorry for.

“And… another thing.” Shiro said. Lance pushed him away slightly and looked up at him.

“Whatever… whatever I said… while I wasn’t me…” Shiro sighed, running his hand through his hair. “Disregard anything I may have said to you while I wasn’t me. Anything bad, that is.”

Lance’s eyes widened. How had he known?

“How did you—?”

“Last night I… had a nightmare. Except it wasn’t really a dream; it was more like…memories.” Shiro closed his eyes to regain his composure and opened them again, slowly. “If anyone needs to be sorry, Lance, it’s me. During that time… you were supposed to be my right hand man.” Noticing how he had said this, he shrugged his right shoulder, smiling some. Lance smiled at this too, but Shiro went on. “Maybe not my best choice of words. Anyway, you were supposed to be second in command. The person to tell me off when I needed it.” Shiro pursed his lips before continuing. “Now that Keith’s piloting Black, and you’re in Red, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t voice your opinion to him because of what I—clone me said to you.”

Lance opened and closed his mouth a few times, not exactly knowing what to say.

“I… thank you.”

“The points you made that day were valid, and you shouldn’t feel otherwise.”

“Really?”

Again, Shiro let out a puff of air. He stood up, offering his hand to Lance to help the younger boy up.

“Of course. I’m only saying what’s true. I may not remember everything, but apparently, that might change within the next few days… so if there’s ever anything, Lance, please let me know.”

Rendered voiceless yet again, Lance simply nodded.

“And… please don’t blame yourself. None of what happened was your fault, trust me. We should be blaming our enemies, not ourselves, right?”

Lance mulled it over. He probably wouldn’t get over it by the next day, but he for sure felt a bit better than earlier. He didn’t know what else to say other than thanking Shiro, so he did.

“Thanks, Shiro.”

“Any time, kiddo.”


End file.
